Aztec priests and spies alike, Montezuma, Hernán Cortés, Pedro de Alvarado and other historical characters were spotted earlier this week in Poly’s fifth grade classes. The characters are part of a classroom simulation that sixth grade history teacher Katie Ward wrote and published with an educational publisher.

Since the fifth-graders are learning about this period in history, Ward shared her simulations with them. Students each were given a role to play, and they read several scenes from a readers’ theater, following the expedition of Cortés at various stages of their encounter with the Aztecs. After each scene, students separated into three groups: Spaniards, Aztecs, and non-Aztecs Indigenous peoples. Based on the information they had at that time, they made recommendations for what they thought their group should do next.

The intention of the exercise is to for students put themselves into historical events as decision-makers, weighing the consequences of different courses of action, and seeing the situation from different points of view.